Why Mike Gundy loves finding ex-wrestlers for the Oklahoma State defense

Oklahoma State’s Malcolm Rodriguez, one of the country’s best linebackers, walked into his locker room after a game and had to make one last takedown.

Picture this: Cowboys coach Mike Gundy is in there, working out right after a win. He sees Rodriguez, just shy of 32 years his junior, and gets up and presents a challenge. The two may have been in a football locker room, but this is Oklahoma, and these are two former wrestlers sizing up each other.

“I guess he thought I was pretty sore or whatever, and he kind of got in a wrestling stance,” Rodriguez said. “I got a hold of him and I kind of picked him up.”

You can forgive Gundy for thinking he had a shot. He grew up wrestling until ninth grade. That year, he said, he finished 35-0, but had to give it up because of time constraints.

Rodriguez, though, won two state wrestling titles in Wagoner, Oklahoma. He said Gundy hollered a little bit, so he put him down.

“I was like, ‘Yeah, Coach, I still got it,'” Rodriguez said. “I could definitely still take him. He’d have no shot.”

This would come as no surprise to opposing offenses. Behind Rodriguez and another star wrestler, defensive end Brock Martin, who won three consecutive state titles in Oologah, Oklahoma, the Cowboys are a stiff test for challengers.

Wrestling and football are both revered in Stillwater, and nowhere do they converge better than on this year’s stellar Oklahoma State defense, which ranks in the top five nationally in points per game (16.4), points per drive (1.1) and yards per play (4.4) while also leading the country with 47 sacks. Rodriguez and Martin are key players on that stellar defense, and both earned first-team All-Big 12 honors on Thursday. Next up, the No. 5 Cowboys play No. 9 Baylor on Saturday for the Big 12 championship (noon ET, ABC) with a chance to make the College Football…